


Demons and Dreams

by ohprettyweeper



Series: The Last Bandito [7]
Category: Trench - Twenty One Pilots (Album), Twenty One Pilots
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 14:33:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17747666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohprettyweeper/pseuds/ohprettyweeper
Summary: Tyler wonders about life in Trench. Quinn makes new friends. Faylinn appears in someone else’s dream.





	Demons and Dreams

There were no words to express the emotions which welled up in Tyler when the Old Dema gate was opened, and he and Josh were allowed to pass through. 

“You will return here before the end of day call,” Reisdro instructed. “If you do not, you will hunted down yourself. The consequences can be quite torturous, so I recommend you return when told, if not before. _Pam’yatayte, de vashi loyal’nosti.”_

With those final words, the Bishop turned back into Old Dema, and the gate was closed behind them. Tyler looked at his friend and smirked; Josh’s expression was a silent plea to do only as they were told. 

“We can fill our day and then return home,” Josh assured. 

“That place is not my home,” Tyler replied, trekking for the border of the new city. 

A mile of forest separated New Dema from Old Dema; Trench was several miles to the South of both cities. Every now and again, through the trees, the cliffs and streams of Trench were visible. Tyler would glance that way, take in a deep breath, and dream of a life between Old Dema and New Dema. A life to himself in Trench. 

“That’s where they started, you know,” Josh said, nodding his head toward the very place stealing all of Tyler’s thoughts. “The Banditos. When they first started to escape, they made camp close to Trench. As they grew in numbers, things became safer. They became stronger than the Bishops. There was too many of them for the Bishops to run after, so they left them alone and started the vampire experiments. Over time, though, the city grew and developed. It modernized with the rest of the world.”

Tyler frowned. “How do you know all of this?”

“Keons is a kinder Bishop,” Josh shrugged. “He tells the Heathens things. He’s told me things.”

“And does the rest of the world know about the Bishops?”

Josh shook his head. “In the rest of the world, they’re a myth. For fear that they might be taken over again by some group not completely unlike the Bishops, the Banditos, and eventually the New Dema government, have kept it all a secret. For centuries. They even limit what is known about New Dema.”

The sounds of the city reached Tyler’s ears and, half a mile later, New Dema was there in front of him. If everything he had believed up to now had been a lie, he felt as though he was now looking at years and years of secrets and truth. 

* * *

“When Ildri told me she had made a new friend, I almost didn’t believe her,” Faylinn teased, “since she’s always so busy with work.”

Ildri made a face at her cousin. “You try working for The Conference, see if it doesn’t take up all your time.”

Quinn laughed as she watched the exchange between the cousins. It had been a long time — nine seasons, in fact — since she had enjoyed the company of anyone so much as she did Ildri. Even after Quinn answered the questions Ildri had come to ask her, their friendship continued. Quinn realized suddenly that it had happened almost without her noticing; one minute it was a professional acquaintance and, the next, they were friends. 

So here she was now, sitting with Ildri and Faylinn at a bustling restaurant in the main part of New Dema, on the East side of Old Dema. Faylinn was just as delightful to be around as Ildri, though Quinn could definitely tell the differences between the two women. 

“I get an actual day off tomorrow,” Ildri told them as they were leaving the restaurant. “Quinn, you should come over and have a couple of drinks with us!”

“I have to work in the morning,” Faylinn reminded. 

Ildri shrugged. “We’ll be quiet if you go to bed. I mean, c’mon — when was the last time we had a new friend?”

“I’m good to hang out for a while longer,” Quinn nodded. 

Ildri cheered. “We’re within walking distance, just around the corner.”

Quinn walked into the apartment behind both of them; Ildri immediately excused herself to get out of work clothes and wash her face. Faylinn stayed behind to get the drinks poured, returning with one for herself and one for Quinn. The latter woman was roaming around the common area, looking at the different knick-knacks and pictures situated around the space. 

“Is this Ildri’s brother?” Quinn asked, accepting the glass tumbler from Faylinn. 

Faylinn swallowed down her first drink and shook her head. “No, that’s her childhood best friend. I’ve told her to take the picture down, but she refuses.”

Quinn frowned. “Did something happen to him?”

Faylinn glanced toward her cousin’s part of the domicile. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but it might help you understand better some things about Ildri. She was adopted when she was nine years old, so her school friends were more her family than anything else. I don’t even remember this boy’s name, but they were thick as thieves. I remember him coming to play with us a few times. **They were playing hide and seek when he disappeared.** She’s been looking for him ever since.”

“The only one to ever know all of my secrets,” Ildri sighed, joining the others with her own drink. “Besides Fay, of course.”

Faylinn gave Quinn a tight smile and moved away from the picture. The women decided to play a couple of rounds of a card game before Faylinn called it a night, leaving Quinn and Ildri to their own devices. 

“What do you usually do in your free time?” Ildri asked, starting her third tumbler of dark liquor. 

Quinn shrugged. She had been nursing the ice from her second drink for some time, for fear that any more drinks would have her telling her whole life story — and she couldn’t risk Ildri knowing the dark truth about her. 

“Grade papers, make lesson plans. I have five classes at the University, so it keeps me fairly busy. Otherwise I’m usually at home, wasting my time.”

“What about your other friends?”

Quinn situated to the edge of the couch. “I don’t really have any other friends, I guess. I’m so busy all the time, it’s just easier without them.”

She hadn’t even convinced herself with the words, but she hoped that Ildri wouldn’t say anything further on the matter. As it was, the other woman downed the rest of her liquor and picked up both glasses from the table. 

“I can agree with that,” Ildri sighed, heading for the kitchen to set the glasses in the sink. When she returned, she announced that she was ready for bed. “You’re welcome to stay, if you’d like. I can set you up on the couch.”

Quinn shook her head. “No, it’s okay. My car is just at the restaurant, and the drive isn’t far.”

Ildri saw her friend to the door, calling her name just before she got too far. “Faylinn has dreams about Old Dema. Working for The Conference, I know and am responsible for some of the worst secrets our city has to offer — and some from Old Dema as well. You’re not the only one with demons — and you don’t have to fight them alone.”

As Ildri closed the door and Quinn heard the locks click, she realized that her excuse about being busy all the time had not passed as well as she had hoped. 

* * *

That first trip into New Dema, Tyler had mostly surveyed the city and stayed in the shadows, as they were told to do. He and Josh returned to the gate with minutes to spare, and were welcomed back into Old Dema with no problems. 

Josh fought sleep that night. While his friend had worked to complete the Bishops’ mission and also gain information to aid his own, Josh had been preoccupied with his own distractions. Though he knew it was likely a figment of his imagination, and maybe some subconscious hope, Josh thought he had caught a glimpse of the woman from his dreams. From that moment forward, he could not stop himself from looking for her. He fought sleep for the simple hope of keeping any further distraction away. If he did not sleep, he could not dream. If he did not dream, he would not see her. 

But, soon enough, sleep found him and won the battle. He was on one side of a table for two in one of those dimly-lit eating facilities in New Dema, dressed as though he was a citizen of the city. There was no bloodthirst to control, no extra noise to be aware of or tune out; he was the human he remembered himself to be long before the Bishops and Old Dema had ever become a part of his life. 

There she was. The woman entered through the front door of the place, in a pretty dress and fancy shoes. Her eyes scanned the restaurant until they landed on him and her mouth pulled into a smile. She beelined for the table, taking up the chair across from him. She took in the scenery, then looked at him with a breath of relief. 

“It’s you,” she smiled. 

Josh nodded. “Yeah. Really me.”

She drew in another breath. **“Is this a dream?”**

 **“Yes,”** Josh replied. **“But it isn’t yours.”**

The moment Josh acknowledged that it was a dream, the smile fell from her face. The facility faded away; New Dema became Old Dema. Josh was a Heathen again, with no hope for the future but the awful thing he had been made for: destruction. 


End file.
